Insurance query

Richard53

I know there are some people on here with experience of the insurance business. Bit of advice, if possible ...

Long story, but a good friend of mine is going to lend me his (second) car for a period of 3-6 months. Basically, it is quite old and getting towards end-of-life, he has bought another, and his wife wants it out of the way. I will keep a few months it until its MoT runs out, and then we will decide where to go from there - scrap, or repair and run another year. He's trying to keep the cost down for me, and has offered to add me to his insurance (he still has full cover on the car) as a named driver. I am concerned that his insurer might see this as fronting. On the positive side, I live at a cheaper postcode and have a clean licence, claim-free for 39 years (he has some claims history and 6 points), so I am a better bet for an insurer than he is, and he will be paying an additional premium upfront. Negatively, I live 200 miles away from him and the car will obviously be kept at my address and I will be the main/only driver for the period of the loan. He proposes to retain ownership of the vehicle, so it's genuinely a loan and not a transfer.

As I understand it, 'fronting' is where you attempt to escape high premiums (e.g. for a teenage new driver) by adding a high risk driver to a cheaper policy as a named driver, but in fact the high risk is the main or only driver. As I am statistically a lower risk than the policyholder, this is not the same, but I don't know how an insurance company would see it. I'll get the car added to my own insurance (I am still keeping my main car) or take out a new policy if necessary, but I thought I would get some views from here first. The car is a little bit, er, sporty, and the insurance could be quite expensive. The 'named driver' idea is his, and I don't want to throw it back in his face unless there is a good reason.  Thanks for any observations.

foxy-stoat

Just transfer the registered keeper to you and you take out insurance, VED and responsible for parking/speeding fines etc.  If you tell the insurer that you are the legal owner then there will be no worries.  Doubt you can add this car to your own policy though, you will have to take out a new one.

For his piece of mind, come to an agreement how much the car is roughly worth in the event of a total loss - write it down and both sign it.  If the car is written off then you can pay him whatever you get if you find yourself in that situation.

A lot cleaner than him insuring it and having you as a named driver as if you did have accident he will have to disclose that to other policies he has for the next 5 + years.

chrisw

There is no problem with you being added as a named driver.

There is nothing to stop the named driver also being the main driver, however, you MUST advise the insurer correctly who the main driver is and where the car's likely to be kept.

Richard53

foxy-stoat said:

Just transfer the registered keeper to you and you take out insurance, VED and responsible for parking/speeding fines etc.  If you tell the insurer that you are the legal owner then there will be no worries.  Doubt you can add this car to your own policy though, you will have to take out a new one.

For his piece of mind, come to an agreement how much the car is roughly worth in the event of a total loss - write it down and both sign it.  If the car is written off then you can pay him whatever you get if you find yourself in that situation.

A lot cleaner than him insuring it and having you as a named driver as if you did have accident he will have to disclose that to other policies he has for the next 5 + years.

Problem is he doesn't want to transfer ownership. I have checked with my insurer, and I could add the car to my present policy, but only if it were my name on the V5. I think that might go against the spirit of the loan! Good shout about the agreed value, thanks.

chrisw said:

There is no problem with you being added as a named driver.

There is nothing to stop the named driver also being the main driver, however, you MUST advise the insurer correctly who the main driver is and where the car's likely to be kept.

Have checked with my insurer, and they say the same. As long as he tells his insurer that the car will be at a different risk address and that the named driver (me) is the main driver, it's not fronting and there shouldn't be a problem. I've just checked with him and he is OK with this so that's how it will happen.

Many thanks for the replies, very helpful.